Presumed Innocent?

Jan 04, 2017

Every so often a story reaches the press that just makes you think our society has taken this issue too far.

A child who has eczema needs assistance to put cream on her back during the school day. However, the head teacher says it is “inappropriate” for staff to apply the medication, for child protection reasons.

I have sympathy with both the school and the parents. An adult might require help to do such a task in a hard to reach area so obviously a five year old will. The school has a responsibility for the welfare of the child. If the school doesn’t ensure that the cream is applied when the child is in their care they could leave themselves exposed to the charge of neglect. However, the head teacher has to protect her staff from potential allegations. So they just can’t win!

Let’s be honest about this… Criminals don’t care if they break the law!

The vast majority of people are not going to harm a child. Our natural instinct is to nurture and protect our young. If a child has fallen over and is crying they can no longer be given a cuddle. Surely this can do harm too!

Somehow our interpretation of the way in which we protect our children has got skewed to the extent that innocent people have to take all sorts of precautions to ensure that they are not falsely accused of doing something inappropriate. Meanwhile our children are being denied the comfort and support of perfectly honest adults.

The safety and protection of our children is paramount however it’s time for the pendulum to swing back a bit.